A pull of the lever could pay for government services

Few words are as despised by Americans as the word "tax." Tuesday's IRS deadline reeks of that loathsome word.

Few words are as despised by Americans as the word "tax."

Tuesday's IRS deadline reeks of that loathsome word.

Even those lucky enough to get a refund this year know that the government has been confiscating some of their hard-earned money the rest of the year.

In 1773, the Boston Tea Party set into motion the country's perpetual hatred of taxation.

Today that animosity runs so deep that politicians running for office will effectively kill their candidacy if they publicly support any new tax — the tea party (Taxed Enough Already) has helped make sure of that.

Still, we need some method for paying government to handle functions that serve a greater public good that no private entity should be responsible for, like law enforcement, defending the nation and providing all young people with an education.

But instead of taxing our income (without our say) every time we receive a paycheck, a better system — and one that people would actually embrace — would be to let us voluntarily contribute to the government.

In this system, revenue for government services would come from the hugely successful "probability industry" better known as casino gambling.

Based on this new fail-proof government revenue system, mini-casinos (the size of a convenience store) licensed by the federal government would be allowed to operate in any commercial zone on any street.

After operating expenses are deducted, a casino's winnings rather than tax dollars would go to the government to pay for public services.

Expanding access to smaller more manageable casinos won't create more gambling addictions or bring more riffraff and corruption to commercial districts because placing them in the middle of town rather than hiding them in the boonies will keep them under many watchful eyes.

And people who lose to gambling wouldn't be any worse off than if they lost that money in taxes.

Any mathematician knows that the probability of winning a gambling payout at any particular time is the same as the time before.

But we don't care about that logic because we get a thrill out of just having a probability at winning. So we fool ourselves with hopes that we have an increased chance of winning something when several recent chances have resulted in us losing.

That's why so many of us can't resist playing games of chance — blackjack, poker, roulette, slot machines, craps, horse racing, sports pools, the lottery, bingo, 50/50s and many others.

"Probably" we will win soon, we think.

So let's roll the dice. Ante up. Spin the wheel.

Let's bet on probability games to fund our government, and double down by replacing the IRS with a new Department of Probability Revenue.